Balloch - Our Ancient Place and Vision Our view of Balloch today is one of a charming red sandstone village, with cheerful pubs and places to eat as well as its little stores and of course its boats and beautiful park. That view has been almost constant for over 100 years and before that it was very much a small idyllic place to have a bite to eat, and take in Loch Lomond's grandeur. But Balloch is a place steeped in history. So old, it goes further back than records permit. Indeed the name Balloch, meaning the pass could in fact refer to the whole valley itself, certainly the broad plain that opens out where the loch drives itself down the anciently named Leven. The name Leven is lost in antiguity, and it was said by ancient writers that the name was once the name applied to the loch itself, Lomond, or Loman, being the mountain, the ben, acting like a giant beacon for the entire area, known then as the Levenach, which later adopted the Latin spelling of Lennox. The two names, Leven and Lomond may well be one and the same in any case, the confusion coming from the various mis-pronuncitions of Gaelic, mixed in with Latin versions and the English based languages taking over as the Earls arrived in the 11th Century. What we know is these names, however they have been contorted, are of very ancient origin. Balloch was the name given to the settlement and one time principal home of the early Lennox earls in the 12th Century. This settlement sat where Balloch Castle now stands, and was there until the early 19th Century, when a local landowner, Buchanan swept the ancient fermtoun away and built his modern castle there. Balloch Village as we know it now was not a village at all, but a ferry crossing and until the 19th Century was known as Boat o' Balloch. Here stood an inn, which forever since has been the site of an hotel, now known as Balloch House Inn. The people in those days lived in small clachans, and in milltouns to the east, as well as the fishing grounds and settlements of the river, that kept everyone fed, clothed and industrious. The lands of Lennox were much prized, for their salmon fishings and fertile plains more than anything else. The abundance of all year round food supply made Loch Lomond and its river the place of kings and royalty, the earls of Lennox, who had taken over in the guise and style of ancient Celtic Mormaers, and inheritors of the ancient Britons of Strathclyde, whose capital was at Dumbarton. This fusion of ancient Briton, Celt, the Pictish rebels, the Roman occupation, the coming of the western Gaels and Southern Saxons created in this region a unique melting pot and fostered in the Loch a deep sense of sharing, spirituality, respect and co-operation not seen anywhere else in Scotland. The respect the Loch and the Levenach earned was as powerful then as it is now, like us, our forebears were overawed by the majesty and beauty of their homeland, be it ancient or adopted. All of this you feel. Every visitor feels it, they dont need to know it, it is as if the Loch itself orchestrates it, now, as it ever did, in the hearts of those who come to it. So profound, for centuries the loch was a place of sprituality, home to the great saints, chief of whom was Kessog (or MacKessog). But others followed too. So strong that earls readily gifted their lands to the churches and God. So powerful, Robert Bruce, who chose this area as his home after campaigning, enshrined in Loch Lomond, at the lands of Luss for three miles, the ideal of Sanctuary, which he had known as a warrior king in league with his great friend the Lennox Earl Malcolm. This enduring theme lives on, where people born here instinctively know this land and this loch is theirs. They hold it in their hearts, and, crucially, they share that with any visitor, their hospitality and willingness to walk a mile with any person that comes here in love of the Loch and its districts. This is what we defend, this ancient, thousands of years old belief, that this is everyone's Loch, this is no man's to own, and we are mere guardians, and ambassadors of the true spirit of Loch Lomond. We may not have much, we feel, we may have nothing, but in our lands and loch we love, deeper than can be expressed often, we know we have something greater than possession, we have the loch to share with all by never possessing it. To try to harness that, to try and sell that, to us is a mortal crime. It runs contrary to our beliefs, our understandings, and is anathema to us. I know no Balloch worthy who would not gladly assist a visitor, show them round, even, if they could, take them on their boat and happily, freely share the love of Loch Lomond with them, that is our joy. Balloch has never went down the road of being greedy, commercialised, because it does not work, and it is contrary to the spirit of sharing that which has been given by God to all of us. Balloch cannot be allowed to enter a phase where it is all about the money, all about greed, all about owning it, vast tracts and half a township, and subverting the loch's spirit and our hearts. We stand for what we inherited, and we stand to reclaim our land to do as we know best, share it with others, in a spirit of freedom, co-operation and honest endeavour and fair exchange. This I know is in the hearts of Balloch people, largely a poorer population, but richer in spirit and greater in vision than any wealthy city. It is the Balloch that says welcome, whatever your income, whatever your spending power, not because of it.